1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a canopy for a building so as to provide an area of shelter against sun, rain, snow, sleet, or other elements. The canopy can be mounted onto an existing building structure. It is capable of supporting the weight of snow and ice, and can withstand wind forces of tropical storm magnitude.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of canopies are known in the art. When viewed from the side, they are generally shaped like right triangles, with a generally vertical side, a generally horizontal side, and a sloping hypotenuse side.
One type of canopy is free-hanging (i.e. having no support posts) and generally comprises a framework and a covering, and is mounted onto an existing wall. See for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,299,395, 2,565,282, 2,629,904, and 2,644,990. U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,395 teaches a canopy for overhanging a door or window. U.S. Pat. No. 2,565,282 teaches an awning for protecting windows or doorways from the sun or rain. U.S. Pat. No. 2,629,904 teaches a readily disassembled metal awning for porches and patios. U.S. Pat. No. 2,644,990teaches a metallic awning apparently designed for placement over windows and doorways. However, all of these prior art canopies and awnings extend only three to six feet beyond their wall of attachment. To extend these canopies beyond six feet would provide a problem twofold. First, the canopies would not be able to withstand heavy winds or the effects of heavy snowstorms and ice storms; the weight of the snow and ice or the force of the winds would collapse the canopy structure. U.S. Pat. No. 2,629,904, avoids this problem by providing a structure that can be easily be disassembled during the winter months, when heavy snowfalls and ice storms would present a problem. Second, extending the canopy out from the building with a longer horizontal side (when viewed from the side) would also require an extended vertical side. This vertical extension would make the canopy "taller" and impossible to install on a single level building due to the building's height restrictions. For example, by extending the U.S. Pat. No. 2,629,904 awning beyond six feet, the vertical side, or height of the awning, would have to extend beyond 2'7" (as the height of the awning is roughly 0.45 times the extension of the canopy). Such a vertical extension could not be tolerated with on most single level homes where the bottom of the canopy is placed at least seven feet above ground level. The impracticality of a vertical extension becomes even more apparent in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,299,395, 2,565,282, and 2,644,990, where the canopy height to canopy extension ratio is larger.
One method of increasing the distance that a canopy can extend from a building is to provide a canopy with vertical supports, or support poles, distal to the canopy's point of attachment to the building. However this canopy support structure can pose a problem, especially in a commercial setting, where vehicles are regularly maneuvered around the support poles. Not only do the vertical supports provide an inconvenience to drivers, but also the entire canopy becomes a liability in the event that one of the vertical supports is damaged in a collision, thereby causing the canopy to collapse.
Another way of increasing the distance that a canopy structure can extend beyond a building structure is to integrate the canopy structure into the building structure. This incorporation does not ensure that the structure of the canopy itself will be able to endure excessive forces. However, by incorporating the canopy into the building structure, there is not as much stress at the lowest point where the canopy is attached to the building, and so the canopy can be further extended without fear that the canopy will "break off" from the point of attachment. See for example U.S. Pat Nos. 2,903,752 and 2,260,369. U.S. Pat. No. 2,903,752 discloses a parking structure for motor vehicles comprising a canopy. The canopy is actually an extension of the parking structure's roof, the roof and canopy being supported by all of the parking structure walls. U. S. Pat. No. 2,260,369 teaches a framework for a collapsible and portable structure to be used in combination with another such structure to form the framework for a temporary airplane hangar. The framework for the hangar comprises extendible roof supporting beams.
While the canopy art supplies many different types of canopies, it provides no suggestion as to how to make a free hanging canopy that can extend beyond six feet off of a building and still maintain its structural integrity in the presence of severe weather at both the position of attachment to the building and across the entire canopy surface, wherein the canopy can be mounted onto an existing wall and wherein the canopy does not have a large vertical aspect or side, so as to make the canopy impossible to mount onto the limited wall space of a single level building structure.
There is thus a need for a free hanging canopy structure that can be attached to an existing building structure that can extend out from the building structure from six to twelve feet. The canopy must also be able to withstand heavy loads typically associated with heavy snowfalls and ice storms in the north, and must be able to withstand both downward and upward forces of tropical storm gales frequently encountered in the coastal states. The canopy structure should also have a vertical framework height that makes it useful for attachment to single level buildings.